Ahead of this election the parliament passed electoral reform legislation to change the electoral system for the Legislative Council. [16] Under the former system that was first adopted for the 2006 state election, members were elected in one of the eight regions by electors who could vote either above the line or below the line, [14] [17] however above-the-line voters could only vote for only one party or grouping of candidates. Preferences were then automatically distributed based on the registered preference order provided to the VEC by the party-submitted group voting ticket. [14] [16] When voting below the line voters were required to number a minimum of five boxes on the ballot in order of preference. [14]
By 2026, Victoria's upper house had become the last remaining state or territory legislative chamber to utilise these group voting tickets to automatically distribute voter's above-the-line preferences, [18] with Western Australia abolishing the practice ahead of the 2025 state election. Victoria's system had led to election results in the upper house becoming unrepresentative of the actual votes received, with so-called 'preference whisperers' such as Glenn Druery organising ideologically disparate microparties to direct their preferences to each other, allowing candidates to be elected despite receiving less than 1% of the vote in some cases. [19] [20]
Attempts to reform the system to more closely reflect the system used for the Australian Senate and other state-based upper houses were rejected by former Premier Daniel Andrews, who described proponents of change as being "quite heavily motivated by wanting to get more of their people elected". [21] Submissions to the post-2022 state election parliamentary inquiry calling for the abolition of the automatic above-the-line preference distributions eventually led to the parliament's Electoral Matters Committee (EMC) to examine the issue. [22] Throughout 2025 the EMC oversaw an inquiry into reforming the electoral voting method for the Legislative Council. [22] Any reform required the approval of both houses of parliament, whilst an alteration to the structure of the upper house, such as the number of members elected to the chamber or the eight regions from which they are elected, would require a vote at a state-wide referendum. [18] [23]
The EMC handed down its report in December 2025, recommending that group voting tickets be abolished and the "weighted inclusive Gregory method for surplus vote transfers" be adopted prior to the 2026 election. [24] The committee further recommended a new process be established, involving either an expert panel, a citizens assembly or a constitutional convention, to consider changes to the electoral structure of the council which could be considered by voters at a referendum in 2028 or 2030. [24]
The issue received renewed scrutiny in April 2026, when far-right commentator Avi Yemini announced his intention to set up the "Free Palestine" party in a bid to attract votes from left-wing voters and redirect preferences of votes the party receives to right-wing parties. [25] The electoral commission responded by confirming it had no authority to prevent parties from adopting misleading names, and in June the commission began the process of registering "Free Palestine" as a political party. [26] In July 2026 The Age reported that the Allan government was set to introduce legislation by the end of the month to abolish group voting tickets. [27]
The government introduced the Electoral Amendment (Miscellaneous Matters) Bill 2026 to the parliament on 28 July. [28] The bill required voters to number at least five boxes for parties above the line, in order of preference, or else number at least five boxes for individual candidates below the line. [29] Like the system in place for the Senate, a savings provision is incorporated so as to enable voters who mark a clear 1 but fail to number their top five preferences clearly, to still have their vote counted as formal. [30] The electoral commission is also tasked with publishing information about newly registered political parties, a response to Yemini and other's efforts to establish parties titled with generally misleading names. [31] The bill passed the Legislative Assembly without any recorded objections on 29 July, and passed the Legislative Council by 33 votes to 4 on 11 August 2026. [16] [28] [32] The legislation received royal assent on 18 August 2026 and went into effect the following day. [33]
Details of Legislative Council vote to abolish group voting tickets |
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